The Mountain Dancer

Chapter 42: Rekness & Tuneryke

The Fistshields were making everyone describe stuff about the Wardensquad. The whole town was crawling with investigators, detectives and new Stateguards. It was kind of cool, actually. He regretted not visiting the roof the night that the big carrier had blown up – they said you could see the burning reflecting off the mountainsides.

They bugged him a lot too, because apparently the fugitive had been on board and they wanted to know if he had remembered anything new at all about the tall man. Truth be told, he hardly could recall the fight at all. It was back when he was weak and barely knew any good Artwork, that was for sure. He remembered the guy hurting his knee and falling on top of him. That kind of thing would never happen again.

But then they started asking about Sila. Or at least someone who sounded a lot like Sila. The Fistshields wouldn’t tell him why they wanted to know about the blue-cloaked woman. He played dumb, of course, but it got him wondering if she had anything to do with the explosion. If she could do that, then she could definitely help him out with his Mountain Dance plans.

But she wasn’t in the Grand Library lately; the book cave remained empty whenever he checked. It was fine, he could handle it himself if he needed to. He had already guilted Affsol into letting him know about where people were going to be seated and what type of wonderment Artwork was going to be in place and stuff. At least his “friend” was good for something.

When he wasn’t serving detention or learning stupid demonstrations from old Minyel, he sometimes studied the big Stone in the Community Hall. All the power in the town stemmed from it. It definitely didn’t like it when he even so much as brushed it with any MoonLunarFire, so forcing his way in with that wasn’t going to be an option. But he found that some of the thin probes that Sila had shown him could sometimes stick without being immediately swept away or bounced out.

When he was in detention, he pretended to be interested in the Dance’s setup. Stoneworth was usually happy to supply him with information that Affsol wouldn’t necessarily know, like things about how many tutors were going, if the big Luminary from Tomecliff was coming or not, and even some stuff that might have been more hush-hush. For instance, Stoneworth confided that there were rumors about a Tether Stone being brought to the Dance, but with all the drama around the carrier, she wasn’t completely sure.

A Tether Stone would maybe be easier to crack than the Communal Stone, but they were usually property of the Chillcrafters, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to piss off anyone from Culdur, lead recruiter of the Crags on his side or not.

And when he was alone at night in his room, he practiced blending his Artwork. The MoonLunarFire was awesome for bringing out cool new types of power from his usual collection. Once he had discovered the new way to use the Artwork, he found that he often didn’t even need the Daxish help to bring it back out again. The most interesting combination so far had been when he mixed Sluicestep with the white. It reversed the balancing awareness that Sluicestep usually provided and started to make him nauseous. And just like that, he knew exactly how he was going to get all of Shay’s tormentors back.

Food was so important at the Dance, as old Minyel and everyone else kept saying. What would the recruiters think of Flek and Fae when they were puking up the rare and exotic foods, preferably all over the recruiters themselves? It was pretty brilliant, and no one would see it coming. He just had to figure out how to get a little piece of that Communal Stone or Tether Stone to work for him.

But first, the test.

He was eating by himself in the General Feasting Hall, in the western section. He badly wanted to try it out on a Shaytrak, Zakree or even Flek himself, but he didn’t want them to be able to get used to the feeling or train their Bodyanchor to counter it.

There was a group of pupils that he had targeted, but then he thought twice. It could be risky if any of the bullies’ friends or minions figured it out too. He realized it couldn’t be tested on anyone who was going to the Mountain Dance this year, or anyone who was popular.

Luckily, the southeast section was filled with losers. He didn’t want to be seen with them, so he made his way to the southern section and sat as close to the eastern edge as he could. His range should be fine. He spotted a table of awkward, younger pupils sitting in the loser-zone. Perfect.

Moving Sluicestep out of its natural Bodyanchor state and into Soulguide was a bit of a trick, but the MoonLunarFire had opened up the skill for him.

Easy now, just a touch each, he reminded himself. He floated thin probes tinged with the offensive Sluicestep gently towards the kids. Four of the five hit the mark, and only one of those fizzed on him. Rekness watched with delight as three of the kids suddenly stopped their meal and got pale. One of them rushed off, but another upchucked right then and there. The third one just put their head on the table as people started to shout and laugh.

Man, I’m getting so good at this. He almost hoped that Flek would come around and start something with him.

“That was gross.”

Rek looked to see those damn orphan twins again. They must have snuck up on him when he was getting his Artwork ready.

“Those kids? Yeah,” he said.

“How’d you do it?”

“What? I didn’t do anything.” This isn’t good, he thought. He quickly tried to remember if the dumb little pups knew anyone important. He remembered them hanging around the strange Iskiss girl from the night he flashstepped, and there was Shay of course.

“You were lookin’ at them!” the girl said. “And Ryke felt it.”

“Ryke? Oh, the kid.” Rek had almost forgotten there were two of them, the boy was so friggin quiet. “Well, he must have made a mistake. I was practicing some probes, but not on them. It was just a… you know, when stuff just happens at the same time…”

“Coincidence?” she said.

“Yeah.”

“Oh. Okay. Are you still Shay’s boyfriend?”

Oh for Massus’ sake. He needed to get out of there. “I guess. Listen, I gotta go.”

“Can you tell her to not be sad no more? We miss her. Right Ryke?” The boy nodded. The girl looked back up at him with pleading eyes.

“Tell her yourself,” Rekness said as he got up. If he couldn’t even be in Shay’s room without her freaking out, these two weren’t going to have much luck. But he wasn’t going to tell them that. They looked like they were the type to start crying over just about anything.

“We can’t find her though.”

“Check the roof walk, why don’t you,” he said, walking away. Hopefully that would shake them off of him. He moved briskly, and was glad when no whining voices followed him.

He had a lot of work to do.